Big Bang Expansion and the Fundamental Forces

Modeling of the "Big Bang" expansion of the universe at earlier and earlier times has led to the use of the "Planck time" of 10^-43 seconds as a proposed interval during which all the fundamental forces were unified into a single force.

Below is an attempt to illustrate the "spontaneous symmetry breaking" which is presumed to have separated the original force into the four forces which we see operating in the present, low temperature universe. Proposed energies and temperatures associated with each of the symmetry breaks are shown along with a modeling of the time elapsed in the big bang model.